EN101 Freshman
Composition
Essay #3 (Television
and Culture) Assignment Sheet
“All essays should be, not trials, but celebrations.”
—Theodore Roethke
A Cultural Analysis Research Essay
When
someone hears about a research paper, they might roll their eyes and sigh with
the thought of reading or listening to a dry essay. However, research essays can be interesting
when they have information that goes beyond the expected to a certain
audience. They are especially
interesting when the writer is connected to the topic, and has a personal story
to how they are connected to what they are presenting as a research paper.
For
this assignment, you will write an essay that examines a television show and
analyzes it for cultural readings and significances. You will also surprise
your audience by including points that challenge a common view of the show. You will first research and create an
annotated bibliography to work from. Then you write the essay using your own
words with a personal story or connection to the television show as part of the
introduction. Then the research
information will serve as examples to support what points of cultural
significance you want to inform and surprise your audience with, and include
explanation to how the research connects back to each point you are making.
Assignment
Write
an essay with an informative and surprising thesis statement with tension. For
an example, “Some might think Buffy the Vampire Slayer is…; however, it….”
Include
how you are connected to your topic in the introduction. You may also want to include a personal story
in the conclusion.
Each
point should be a surprising point and/or describe the show’s cultural
significance.
Write
your essay with an audience to appeal to.
For example, an audience that believes Family Guy is only out to insult Americans. How can you write your essay to appeal to
them? Include your audience in the
upper-left hand label of your essay, after the date.
Include
several well-developed examples to support each point, which supports the
thesis. Use research to “back up” your
examples. Include copies of all research
in your manila file folder, highlighting the quotes or sections you used. Xerox the pages used out of books and
magazines, and print out online journal articles and websites.
Integrate
research effectively. You must have at
least four electronic database articles need to be incorporated. Also, you are
free to use non-web page sources (books, research articles, magazine articles,
etc.) For web pages, please check with
me.
Important notes: At least four sources must be from an electronic
database. If you cannot find one, please talk to me. You might need to change
your topic.
Your
essay needs to be new, so you can explore this method of doing a research
paper. Please DO NOT use a topic you have previously written about, as a fresh
topic will allow you to learn the steps we will go through for class.
Make
copies of or print out the sources and indicate where the information came from
by highlighting the used information. You
must include this in your portfolio.
Feel
free to include relevant personal examples and explanations. Define terms readers may not know.
Use
a logical organization that makes the paper easy to follow.
Use
MLA format.
Include
a Works Cited page using the correct format.
The
assignment should be no more than
four to five pages in length.
LSH pages covered: 68-92, 93-135
(MLA), 136-169 (optional APA).
Topic
Brainstorming
Use
a television show you already know more about that others may not know
about. Formulate a question about your
topic. What might people expect the
answer to be to this question? With this
common view, how will your essay surprise them?
For example, when you think of the Big Bang Theory, what do you think
of?
For
more ideas, look through newspapers, magazines, and, of course, watch
television.
Page
34 in LSH might be handy, too.
Use
clustering to brainstorm things about the shows you have in mind.
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